Erica and Thalia

Sometimes a foggy day is beautiful...

This day at the beach with Erica and Thalia was one of those days...

Timeless.... sepia pictures, to me, are beautiful... I love this!

The same photo in color...equally beautiful, just different. Notice Thalia's shirt? I told her how cute I thought it was..

"Dad picked it out for me!" she said. I was impressed with my baby boy...good taste, Joshua!

Benjamin taught his Aunt Erica how to point and say, "What's that?"

I'm kidding, in case you didn't know. We were on the pier and I think Erica was pointing at one of the gulls on the rock...Thalia, however, doesn't seem the least bit interested in the gull...
We walked down to a different beach...this one was at the bottom of a trail by the lighthouse.

My daughter-in-law...Erica...a woman after my own heart...snapping photos...
and snapping more photos...
and more...Thalia, the rock climber...as you'll read more about in the post under this one.
We then walked to a different beach. Actually, this is the same one we all went to the next day.

It is definitely a great place to take photos!

Isn't the northern coast gorgeous? On a foggy day, it has a different beauty...
As I said with the sepia-photo...I say again with this black and white...it's timeless...

It certainly helps to have beautiful subjects!

Beach

After returning from my European adventures, Lindsey and Benjamin returned home with me. Fifteen minutes after we arrived at home, Joshua, Erica, and Thalia drove in. I was thrilled to have 2/3's of my kids' families home with me.

Erica, Thalia, and I spent one day at the beach...but we all spent one day there together.Joshua is not usually one to smile in pictures...but he was only to happy too smile with Erica!
Mimi and Benjamin

We, of course, took photos of us all together... Lindsey and BenjaminJoshua, Erica, and ThaliaJoshua and Erica...hamming it up!

Thalia and BenjaminPapa, Benjamin, and Mimi

Lindsey and Benjamin with Mimi's keys!Thalia, Papa, Benjamin, and Mimi

Once the photos were finished, well, the posed photos, it was time to get down to some playtime...or climb-time. Thalia is a climber, and she wanted to climb the rocks. Luckily for her, her Papa and Dad were there and only too happy to climb with her.Mama Erica was watching her babies climb...Whew...we were happy they made it safely to the top! Now, of course, they needed to get safely down...which they did!Benjamin wanted to know why he couldn't go up on the rock too.

I told him he was still a baby...a toddler...too young for such shenanigans!

He was OK with that...but he still wanted to play at the beach.He loved the texture of the sand...running his hands through it...Well, maybe it felt a little strange....but it still made him happy... and how sweet is this?"What's that?" Benjamin asked about everything he saw.

Uh-oh...he saw what his Uncle Joshua, Papa, Thalia, and Erica were doing. He wanted to do it too.

"Benjamin, you can't do everything yet...you're only a little man," I tried to pacify him.He was happy once again...Thalia and Erica prepared for their big jump... Thalia had wanted to jump off the HUGE rock she had climbed with her Dad and Papa...but her sweet Mama told her NO, that she was just a little girl...well, that's not exactly what she said. Nevertheless, Erica wanted to let Thalia have her jump...so she told her she would jump with her...on a little smaller rock...

Thalia said, "OK..." (reluctantly)

Whoa! Be careful on that big rock! Papa joined in the fun...

Thalia had so much fun that she did it again!and there goes Joshua!Benjamin was happy...he gave them a hearty clap for all their jumping escapades! He told his cousin, Thalia, how brave she was...He gave his mama a big kiss for bringing him to the beach...and told her he was ready to go... His Uncle Joshua grabbed him and carried him a while...

It was a great day at the beach...

And I'm so happy I can blog again!

Finally!

I am happy...

happy because my laptop is now ...well, it seems to be fixed. I'm going to play around with it awhile...and wait until 7 p.m. when Pallab, from India, will call me to reset everything.

A little history...before I left for Europe, this DELL laptop started being a bit sluggish...didn't scroll correctly...running slower...

Ran the virus scan...nothing...seemed everything OK.

Back from Europe...it was worse. So I called DELL...they ran some diagnostic tests...told me it was running slow! (Yep, that's what I called for!) They said I needed a new motherboard, memory modules, and processor. Check. They came to the house and replaced them.

It was worse...

Back from Texas, called DELL again. Same scenario... today, I had a new hard drive put in...which means I lost everything...but I did back up all I knew how to do...namely, photos.

I'm not sure where my pictures will go when I load them, so I'm waiting for now...for Pallab to call me at 7 p.m. and lead me through setting up all that I haven't already done.

New posts should be coming soon...

So much to blog!

One more thing: for some odd reason, I keep seeing this little box saying photos or videos have been deleted or moved...from Photobucket (which I didn't even think I used!) Do you see that on your screen?

Driving Miss Thalia

It all started with the Texas golf cart....

Thalia became an expert golf cart driver...chauffeuring around anyone who wanted a lift...

but now that she's ten, that's 10 years old, she's graduated to the car...

yes, you read that correctly...the car...as in automobile...as in Toyota Camry...

I was a passenger for this maiden voyage...

this maiden journey down the roads at the farm...the Johnston Farm...

I must be honest and let the readers of the JohnstonChronicles know that I was a bit...a little bit more than a tiny bit...a medium bit nervous when I was the passenger in a moving automobile being driven by a 10 year old CHILD...

Her dad, my baby boy, Joshua, was 'riding shotgun'...he had his hand hovering over the emergency brake...just in case...just in case an armadillo ran across the street and this 10 year old driver didn't slam on the brakes fast enough...or even if something like another car met us head on...which actually happened. However, the emergency brake was never applied, because this very mature, 10 year old driver, who just happens to be my granddaughter, just casually pulled over to the side of the road and came to a stop until the car passed. Now, this is just what you do in the country because the road isn't always wide enough for two cars to pass on the pavement...

I told my now-very-competent-10-year-old granddaughter to turn around and look at her Mimi so I could document this momentous occasion...

she was only too happy to oblige...

Thalia has a proud Mimi...